BCA Marketplace has hit the acquisition trail once more, snapping up automotive services group Paragon Automotive for £105m.
The move brings BCA one step closer to its goal to become the UK’s leading one-stop shop for automotive services for OEMs, dealers and leasing companies.
The acquisition of Paragon comes just one year after BCA Marketplace, the company behind Webuyanycar.com, bought Eddie Stobart’s automotive logistics business Autologic for £16m, rebadging it BCA Automotive.
Paragon bought Autologic’s automotive after-sales division from Stobart in 2013, a sale presided over at the time by Stobart chairwoman, and previous chief executive of Autologic, Avril Palmer-Baunack.
Palmer-Baunack now heads up BCA after her investment vehicle bought the company in April last year.
Paragon, which has over 1,250 staff, brings BCA 600 acres of storage, land and refurbishment facilities across the UK. Its logistics division has has a fleet of 110 car transporter trucks.
Commenting on the acquisition, BCA executive chairman Avril Palmer-Baunack, said the purchase “gives us a key component in our transformation of BCA to the pre-eminent managed vehicle services provider to the UK and ultimately European automotive industry".
"Following this transaction BCA will manage more 1.5 million cars a year in the UK and the company sees significant potential to grow this new division organically as well as delivering operating synergies."
BCA also added vehicle defleet, refurbishment, logistics and storage specialist Ambrosetti to its portfolio in February this year.
Last month BCA posted preliminary results for the 15 months to 3 April 2016, revealing £1.15bn of revenue and £3.9m of pre-tax profit generated in the 15 months to April 2016.
